August 16, 2012

Faith is Like a Seed- Printable Handout

In my church, I teach Sunday School to the adults in our congregation. It's called Gospel Doctrine class and it just might be the most intimidating responsibility I've ever had. I'm no scriptorian, but I do have a love of the scriptures and the gospel that help me teach this class.

One of my biggest challenges is keeping my lessons interesting and "memorable" (meaning, I want them to HEAR what is being taught, if that makes sense). Because I'm a musician, I often bring music into my lessons to help teach a point. I find that sometimes music conveys the Spirit like nothing else can.

Recently, I used the children's song "Faith" to teach about--what else-- faith (Alma 32)

Faith is knowing the sun will rise, lighting each new day.
Faith is knowing the Lord will hear my prayers each time I pray.
Faith is like a little seed-- if planted, it will grow
Faith is a swelling within my heart; when I do right I know.

I made a handout using a line from this song. I like to put little reminders directly into my scriptures, so that when I am studying them on my own, the lesson will come back into my mind.

(I need to say a quick thank you to LDS Files for the seed image. You can find it here.)

I'm sharing the handout if you'd like to use it. It would be great for Primary, Youth, or even adults! It will print four to a page, and you can DOWNLOAD IT here. (the gray lines are just cut guides)

While I was putting this together, I thought I'd share a few thoughts about how I study and mark my scriptures. I know that not everyone that reads my blog is interested in this, but it is something that is important to me. I've looked online for inspiration before, so if this helps someone else, I'll gladly share it!

Scripture study is a very personal thing. Everyone has their own way, their own system, etc. I have read my scriptures many times, and in pretty much every way imaginable. My scriptures are dog eared, full of writing and color, and are stuffed with lesson handouts, as I mentioned above.

I have quotations that I got from talks or lessons.

I have lists (Corianton's 5 problems, The 9 "Wo's"- wo unto the....)

My favorite thing to do is to go through and mark my scriptures by topic. I found these great colored pencils a few years ago, and I use them all the time! Now being back-to-school time, you can find these at the store for cheap! They are Crayola's Twistable Colored Pencils. No sharpening- what's not to love?

I read my scriptures cover to cover, looking for scriptures that talked about a specific set of topics that I had identified before I started.

I know there are lots of other topics I could have chosen, or ways I could have split them up, but this is what worked for me (and fit the colors I had!)

When I find a verse that talks about one of these topics, I draw a dark line outlining the verse, then shade it in lightly (you can see what I mean in the above pictures. I just like the way it looks.) If a verse talks about more than one of these topics, I color half one color, and then the other half the other color. I also make notes in the margins and draw arrows to footnotes, or underline words and phrases that stand out in a verse.

I got this set of scriptures about ten years ago, and it is a treasure to me. I love to reread them and remind myself of things I have discovered along the way. I also often find a verse I missed that fits into one of my topics. It's amazing how you can always find something new in the scriptures.

By the way, if you'd like to read what I read, you can order a free, no-strings-attached Book of Mormon here. I also read and mark my Bible the same way.

I'm linking this up to some of these link parties this week-- I hope you'll join in too!

What an awesome post. Thanks so much for sharing your blog over on our FB page the other day. Man, I thought my scriptures were good & marked, but you've got an awesome system! Might have to try this someday when I get new scriptures (mine are getting pretty hammered these days!) Off to look around some more! :)